The Sorcerer was a bitter hermit in his mansion until he found Pandora's Box, the Greek legendary artifact that contains 100 evils. Using ancient incantations the Sorcerer commands those evils to do his bidding and his will is to destroy the Human Torch!

Why does this character get solo stories? He's an insufferable jerk. First he starts a fight with Namor for NO reason, and now in this issue he sets a guy's yard on fire because he doesn't want kids trespassing on his property. The Human Torch is a grade A douchebag, and regardless of how much better of a story this was, this character is so irritating that I'm busting out a rare one star for this issue. This is probably the most unlikable this character has been so far, and seeing the rest of the Fantastic Four talk about how much they love him in this issue made it that much worse.

Robert Bernstein is doing good things for the solo torch stories. Particularly in the character development department. He really gives me a glimpse of adolescence in Johnny Storm. And the story ends in a celebration of Johnny's cockiness, which leads me to believe that the brash acts and bullying manner of his is meant to be there.

This is displayed most vividly with the overreacted and unkind way in which he deals with the Sorcerer. As mean or cruel as it seems to us while we read this issue, how many of us can really say we didn't act overly rude or bullying some times in front of our peers. Torch revelling in the awe of a couple fans while he's bullying the local crazyman isn't all that far off from what I'd expect from any high school kid out to have a laugh. The fact that the guy is a washed up follower of the occult doesn't help him either.

I feel that the new 'wall of fire' ability is kind of overpowered - at least in the scope in which it was used in this issue - but oh well, these abilities seem to change by the month, so I'm not too shook.

Pandora's Box was shipped through air mail to a crazy man, accidentally. Um... I don't know what to say about that, aside from unbelievable.

Never mind forgetfulness being an EVIL of the flesh, but sleepiness? Paralysis!? FLOOD!? Yeah those were pretty bad too. Pretty pretty pretty prettyyyyy pretty bad.

One star for Mr. Bernstein doing good for the comic. One star for a firm sense of Johnny Storm's character. One star for lazy bullets and the way that Hatred was used.

OK, so we have the gems which make you invincible from Fantastic Four #5 and now Pandora's Box that Johnny threw into the ocean. Boy, if Namor gets ahold of this stuff, the surface world is gonna be in some serious trouble. Yeah Johnny was a punk in this issue, not cool. Poor crazy old man.

What does it say about the Torch's solo adventures in Strange Tales that I'm overjoyed this issue at least doesn't have any gaping holes in the plot and the monologuing is kept to a minimum? The third star comes mostly from the fight scene in the bank.

This one was pretty laughable. Nice back-and-forth with the FF in the beginning, but once the story gets going, it's fairly lame. Over the last few issues in the order, Johnny doesn't seem to be written with any sort of consistency. Especially jarring is Johnny's appearance in Spider-Man #3 where he's at Pete's high school assembly saying "Stay in school, kids!" and in this very next story he laments about having to be in school and wants to quit.

The police in this story aren't very good, are they? "But why do all the crimes occur near Glenville?"

"But why do all the crimes occur near Glenville?" Boy these police officers are a little laughable... Pretty average issue, but I gotta wonder: How is it that the Sorcerer wasn't affected by Imps until the very end? Was it some sort of Black Magic thing? I feel like I'm missing something...

That’s my line – “Black magic went out with moustache wax… years ago!” (The Human Torch)

I find it odd that the Fantastic Four leave the Torch out for some missions. On the other hand, I can’t blame them. He probably gets on their nerves too!

The Human Torch pushed his luck a bit when he interfered with the Sorcerer at the beginning of the story. The man had every right to his privacy and the Torch was a real nuisance here. A true teenager!

That hate scene at the bank was hilarious.

Had I been Johnny, I would have concluded that people at the bank had been… lemme guess… hypnotized? Nope! Not this time!

With Merlin’s trinkets, this is the second time they leave dangerous artifacts in the ocean for Namor to grab. In addition, with everything people dump at sea, no wonder Namor hates humans!

In this story, the Torch pretends that his flame kills all viruses. Yet Spider-Man meets him at a hospital where he is treated for a virus in another story.

The two cops’ hysterical laughs were contagious! It got me!

Lazi slugs! Good one!

That story was so Kirbidiculous that it was actually fun! We’ve seen worse, so for a few good one-liners, 2 stars.

A Human Torch story that's Pandora's Box meets "you dang kids stay off of my yard". Odd tale but it was a tad different. No aliens but Commies were briefly mentioned. For me, better than average for Strange Tales and the over the top Johnny.

Three positive things I can say about these solo Human Torch stories: 1) The Fantastic Four occasionally show up and we (albeit briefly) get to see their great dynamic at play, 2) Fantastic Four villains are introduced, although they need some work (Wizard's costume has yet to change and Paste-Pot Pete hasn't dropped that terrible name yet) and 3) They're only thirteen pages long. Otherwise I can do without these.

If, as this story plainly states, flame is "one of the evils" meant to be eternally contained within Pandora's Box, for humanity's protection... then doesn't that make Johnny Storm, by logical extension, an actual embodiment OF evil?

Mind you, given how jaw-droppingly gawdawful these Human Torch stories have been thus far, I certainly wouldn't *quibble* with that particular interpretation... ;)

Very mixed bag of an issue.
I loved the opening interaction between Torch and the Fantastic 4
I hated the fact that Johnny decided to act like ana**holeand set fire to the guys garden.
I thought the use of Pandora's box was a lot of fun
Wasn't into the fact that we saw two heists, we got the point with the first one.

However the thing that really tipped me from liking the story into hating it was the fact that the villain would give the Torch FIRE. What an idiot!

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